Edinson Volquez On Waivers

The Padres have placed right-hander Edinson Volquez on waivers, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports (on Twitter). Volquez drew interest leading up to the non-waiver trade deadline, so it would be surprising if he goes unclaimed.

Teams routinely place players on waivers, even if they don't plan on trading them, so this is not an indication that the Padres intend to move Volquez. If he goes unclaimed, the Padres will be able to complete a trade just as easily as they could have before the current waiver period began three weeks ago.

If a team claims Volquez, the Padres will have three choices. They can let him (and his contract) go to the claiming team, they can complete a trade with the claiming team, or they can pull him back off of waivers. National League teams will have claiming priority on Volquez.

Volquez earns $2.24MM this year and is under team control through 2013 as an arbitration eligible player. The 29-year-old has a 4.18 ERA with 8.7 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 in 148 2/3 innings over the course of 26 starts.

I can’t see the Padres wanting to deal Volquez. A rotation of Luebke, Volquez, Cashner, Richard and either a free agent (Peavy, I can dream) or one of the kids on the farm would give the Padres a shot at the division. If Byrnes wouldn’t deal Headley, it just makes no sense to deal Volquez.

Innings are incredibly valuable, especially when you are pitching as well as he has recently. The 1.78 ERA and 1.02 WHIP in August says he IS pitching well right now. As does the 3.36 ERA and 1.101 WHIP in the 2nd half. So does the 7+ innings per start in the 2nd half.

WAR is pretty much worthless for pitchers. If you said he was 83 of 95 pitchers in xFIP or tERA then it might mean something for the year, but he is not.

I wont get deep into it, but Studeman has said its a PREDICTOR stat not a performance measurement stat and that to do even a decent job at predicting you need 30+ starts of data.

In xFIP Richard is right there with Ian Kennedy, CJ Wilson and Kyle Lohse. Not and ace, but still very valuable to the team. Especially one filled with very young pitchers.

I can’t see Moseley or Stauffer being back. Luebke won’t be ready for the first couple of months, so Volquez, Richard, Cashner, Bass and Wieland will hopefully be the start the season. When Luebke returns, the can move someone to the pen, send Bass or Wieland down or make a trade.

Moseley should be done as a Padre.
Bass seems to be better out of the bullpen.
I think if they bring Stauffer back they should look at putting him back in the pen. He was lights out of the pen a couple of years ago.

The Padres currently have 49 players on the 40-man heading into the off season. Of those Moseley, Owings, Stauffer, Hundley, Blanks and the unproven cast of Venable, Evereth Cabrera, Rymer Liriano, Parrino, Darnell as well as others will have to go to make room for protecting guys like Erlin, Weiland, now Gyorko, etc. from the Rule 5 draft. I can see a huge shake up when the new ownership officially takes over, including a new GM, and maybe even bringing in a new Manager. So they will funnel some money into a frontline starter, or two, and to round out the rotation with Richard, Cashner and Bass/Weiland would round out either the 3-5 or 2-5 in the rotation. Volquez is a head case like Latos was. Too inconsistent from start to start. He was a project, and you can say he has had more bad starts than good ones. Cheers!

Moseley, Owings, Venable, Cabrera, and Parrino are likely gone. They signed Hundley to an extension in the spring, so they will pretty much need to trade him; though it wouldn’t shock me to see him backing up Grandal next season.

Liriano is one of their top hitting prospects, so he’s not going anywhere. THey still think Darnell can produce as an outfielder, so I’d be surprised if he went anywhere. I would expect them to at least entertain bringing Stauffer back because Wieland is coming off of arm surgery, I believe.

I doubt they get rid of Black, he’s a favorite of the front office. Likewise with Byrnes, he built this young team with astute trades and signings, he’s earned the right to stick around. They have had too much instability with the GM spot the last two or three years to start fresh with another new one.

Cabrera is not gone, he is the starting shortstop and the way he is playing now the leadoff hitter.

Owings and Moseley are likely gone. Parrino may also be gone if he doesnt pass through being outrighted off the 40 man roster. Tekotte is a 4th outfielder at best so he is gone unless he can pass through being outrighted off 40 man.

Ohlendork, Wagner, Marquis & Stults are likely gone or at least dropped from 40 man and signed to minor league deals.

Weiland had Tommy John on July. He is out a year +.

Venable is likely gone only because he is arb eligible for the 2nd time and Darnell, Guzman, etc… will be cheaper 4-5th outfielder.

Stauffer may have surgery and be out all of next season. If he does, he is gone. If he is healthy, he is still a question mark.

Hundley was signed to a 3 year deal and they wont release him, so unless he is traded in the offseason he will stay on the 40 man.

Volquez is not a head case (neither was Latos) but he is wild. Its control of his pitches, not his brain that he lacks.

Bass will be back in the starting rotation to start the season along with Volquez, Richard, Cashner and ??

Byrnes has made one good trade (Latos) and several bad or at the very least questionable trades. He is far from safe. But I agree that the new ownership will likely keep him one year.

Greinke, Jackson and possibly Peavy are the only young FA starters that are a significant improvement. The key thing is young. Padres are not going to sign a FA starter much on the downside of 30. At least not anyone they plan on keeping over 1 year.

I think Byrnes made more than one good trade. He traded for Street, whom he later signed to an extension. He traded for Quentin, whom he later signed to an extension. Make no mistake, having a guy like Quentin in the lineup has contributed to Headley’s career year. He didn’t give up much of anything in either trade. Then there is the Latos deal, which helped re-shape the batting order. He also opted to keep Headley, which is proving to be a wise decision. The jury is out on the Rizzo/Cashner deal – both guys have flashed potential, but no one knows what either guy is or will be at this point.

The Padres won’t be signing Greinke or Peavy in the off-season. They’ll give someone like Kelly or Erlin a crack at the rotation before they spend that money. And someone should beat Byrnes senseless if he spends any money on Jackson who is a head case, no matter how many innings he gives you. Anyone who signs that dude to anything more than a one year contract needs to have his head examined.

My guess is, any payroll the Padres add will be via trade. They will try to package some of their prospects to fill big league holes. They need a trade like the one that brought Cammy, Fins and Cedeno to San Diego and essentially jump-started their playoff runs in ’96 and ’98.

Byrnes really has to look into the availability of Andrus this off season. He would be be the leadoff hitter and solve the SS issue. If the Padres can’t get a bona fide SS, like Andrus, I would rather them stick with Cabrera, as he has been producing as of late, then sign an aging SS stop gap, because the Padres don’t have a sure fire SS coming up anyway.
Also, I’m pretty sure the closest deal Byrnes will ever make close to the Caminiti/Finley deal was the Latos deal he already made.

The Latos deal was a very good one for the Padres. I think the Padres would have been better served by turning the older Alonso than trading Rizzo.

Street was a $9 million investment at the time (Salary + buyout on option or 16% of Padres total payroll) and he already had a history of injuries. Yes he has pitched well when healthy, BUT and its a big but, he has only been healthy for 37 appearances and likely wont make another this year. Someone else brought this up earlier and I poopooed it, but he was right. Street is an injury risk.

Quentin will end up playing less than 100 games again. He is an expensive luxury. WAY too fragile to be a good value. Especially considering Byrnes game up TWO players that will contribute at the MLB level. Simon Castro stepped in as the #4 prospect in the Sox organization and has pitched well with improved command this year. Pedro Hernandez got a cup of coffee at 23 yrs old before being traded to Minnesota. NOT a good trade for Padres.

For a team not expected to contend BOTH were very questionable trades.
The Cashner Rizzo trade is more than questionable. Byrnes got raped. Cashner the RELIEVER once again got hurt immediately after trying to start and Rizzo is doing well (.289 with 9 hr in 194 abs). You never, and I mean never, trade a 22 year old position player who is a top 30 prospect for a 25 yr old reliever with a history of injuries no matter how hard they throw.
One for four is not a good record.
Even if they sign all their arb eligible players, and they wont, the Padres will still have at least $10 million to spend if they plan to stay under $70 million. That is one decent starter, maybe even a Peavy (I doubt it too, but weirder things have happened). Certainly not a Greinke.
Jackson is not ace, but he is a step up from Volquez. He has actually pitched about as well as Peavy this year.
Have to agree that the Padres will deal from their strength, a deep farm, to make some trades to fill needs. Lets hope Byrnes can turn it around and make a good trade again.

Weiland (Tommy John in July) and Luebke (Tommy John in late May) wont be back at the start of the season. Stauffer is hurt again and may not be back in 2013 if its serious.

Casey Kelly & Rob Erlin may have to be included in that group if they keep progressing.
Volquez, Richard, Cashner, Bass and ?? to start the season. Possibly Stults or Marquis will be back if Padres dont trade or sign a starting pitcher.

Wieland and Luebke won’t be seen until mid-July at the earliest.
Stauffer probably will never apperar in a SD uni again, as the front office is getting weary of his propensity for injury and his slow recovery rate.
That goes for Moseley also.

Don’t see why the Padres (or any team really) want to keep Volquez, at least not as a SP. Salary will be close to $4MM next year in arbitration and his splits tell the real story. Dude has a 1.69 WHIP and .820 opponents OPS on the road this season. Not to mention he also leads the league in walks. When will people get over his flash and see him for what he really is?

I think San Diego feels fine about the deal. Latos is a very good pitcher. But Alonso and Grandal have looked fine in the first season in the Majors and fit what the Padres need. Volquez was never anything more than a wildcard(throw in) in the deal.

They got a better catcher to replace Hundley and found a 1B for the future, Volquez has been really good but besides yesterday he was quite erratic for several starts in a row. He seems to loose his stuff and then completely regain it and then loose it all again. Padres are very happy with that deal.

Frankly Volquez is more valuable to the Padres than he would be to any other team other than maybe the mariners, look at the home road splits. Home: ERA 3.09, K/BB 1.89, FIP 3.18, xFIP 3.79. Road: ERA: 5.60, K/BB: 1.32, FIP 5.55, xFIP 4.89. He gets helped by Petco more than the average pitcher.

This makes sense for the Padres. Volquez is nothing more than a stop-gap until Weiland, Kelly, Erlin and etc. are ready.
At worst they find who is interested and maybe they can make a trade that will help them out down the road.